Contributors

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Chomsky and Holocaust Deniers, Again

Chomsky famously defended the neo Nazi Holocaust denier, Robert Faurisson, by describing him as “a relatively apolitical liberal of some sort”. He did so, despite the fact that Faurisson’s drift into extremism and racism was no secret, and had been explained to him by Pierre Vidal-Naquet.

Now, Chomsky has found himself in another pickle. Asharq Al-Awsat reports that he attended the inauguration of a Hezbollah Museum. At that inauguration, Hezbollah supremo Hasan Nasrallah denied the Holocaust:

After Sunday’s visit to Sojod, the students were taken to a newly inaugurated Hezbollah war museum in the nearby village of Mlita, replete with war booty captured from Israeli soldiers and their Lebanese militia allies and a memorial for the group’s dead.

“We hope this tourist jihadi center will be a first step toward preserving the history of our heroic resistance,” Nasrallah told supporters via video link at Friday’s inauguration of the Mlita museum.

In a nod to Hezbollah’s rivals, Nasrallah cited Israeli Holocaust museums to stress the importance of preserving history.

“Everywhere you go there is a Holocaust museum, regardless of (the Holocaust’s) authenticity, accuracy or magnitude,” he said.